Serving Our Community through AmeriCorps

Peacemakers thrives on helping, loving, and serving the people of our community. It is the vision of the church and the heart of our service to help people reach their fullest potential. To attain that vision, we partner with many organizations and non-profits to help facilitate life transformation. Here’s an update on what the staff of Peacemakers Family Center (PFC) has been up to in the past week.

Trinity Church has partnered with Volunteer Florida for 10 years, as a grantee organization, to serve the Miami-Dade County community. When Trinity first began its commitment to serve our community through AmeriCorps, we only had five AmeriCorps members. Today, 20 AmeriCorps members serve thousands of people in our community through our many services, including Freedom School, Children of Inmates, Food Pantry, and the Peacemakers Family Center office.

This past week, we received a humbling invitation to provide the energizer activity at the opening ceremony for the AmeriCorps Southern Regional Training. Ten states were represented at this event, with over 400 AmeriCorps staff in attendance. Tuesday morning, six members of our team, including our Executive Director Linda Freeman and AmeriCorps Program Director David McDermott, took the stage and turned what was a sleepy morning into a party! In true Trinity fashion, we had the entire room on their feet laughing, clapping, and dancing, setting the tone for the entire conference.

Additionally, our very own AmeriCorps member Nelson Ruiz was chosen for the AmeriCorps Service Spotlight component of the training! He was able to proudly share his passion for service to everyone in attendance.

Not only was the Southern Regional training being held this week, Volunteer Florida simultaneously began a new project called “LeaderCorps.” The inaugural class of LeaderCorps members were in training sessions the entire week to learn how to increase their leadership capacity and take on a statewide leadership role. There are approximately 1,300 AmeriCorps members in the state of Florida. 21 members were chosen to be a part of this yearlong cohort; one of them was Peacemakers AmeriCorps member Hannah Boyd!

We were excited to be part of so many components of this Southern Regional Training, and look forward to continuing our partnership with the amazing people at Volunteer Florida and AmeriCorps.

After the conclusion of the training, Pastor Linda Freeman, AmeriCorps member Hannah Boyd, and two Children of Inmates employees traveled to Jacksonville, FL to strengthen what is an exciting new opportunity! Children of Inmates (COI) recently began a partnership with The Department of Children and Families, where COI will be facilitating bonding trips for clients and reuniting them with their incarcerated parents. We are looking forward to expanding what began at Trinity Church to a statewide capacity.

Many exciting things are happening in and through Peacemakers Family Center and Trinity Church, and we believe the best is yet to come!!!!